EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS

LEGO_Mindstorms_FirmwareThe educational robotics is an innovative learning methodology which combines the elements of basic sciences (physics, engineering), new technologies IT (software development, artificial intelligence) and study of human behavior.
The educational robotics from the pedagogical side is part of constructionism. The dealing of students with robotics creates two activities, one of a construction and one of a programming nature. The artificial structure is created by the students utilizing a set of building materials such as LegoMindStorms  (LM). In a worksheet the students record their thinking in different ways as a free text, as a pseudo code or as a flowchart. Through a computer they program the robotic structure using optical programming. The treating of learning as entertainment by the use of robots LM, is a pleasant and creative teaching method for the learning of basic programming concepts.
Object of the “Educational Robotics” is the development of applications in preparing children for the new technologies. The educational potential of robotics leads students to synthesize a mechanical entity (e.g. a car model) and direct it by means of a simple and user-friendly programming environment. The design activities with robotic constructions are related to the realization of a project to solve a problem. The working stages, that will take place as phases of a single work, may be repeated in a cyclical manner or overlapped.
The introduction of robotics in the “digital school” is supported by the latest learning theories according to which, the creation of new knowledge is more effective when the students are involved in manufacturing products that have personal meaning to them. Through its activities, to be developed in schools, children will have the opportunities to express themselves through personal discovery and creativity, to guide themselves in planning their construction, to test their own robotic models and to share their ideas in a purely collaborative learning environment.
The Technological Research Centre of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace willing to contribute to the dissemination of educational robotics created a teaching platform in Educational Robotics [2], in order to train teachers of primary and secondary education, who are willing to engage themselves in educational robotics.
The platform refers to the creation of a detailed user manual in Greek for the optical software, the detailed description of robots and the creation of robotic structures, the demonstration of robots and their programming environment for children aged 6-15 and the recording of their reactions and queries, the creation of applications, for teachers of primary and secondary education, which could be supporting material in the educational process.
This work was exhibited in the Industrial Informatics Festival and it was honored, following a unanimous decision of the Scientific Committee of the Festival, composed from the 12 heads of Departments of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, the prize of “Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Center of Technological Research”, which is the highest prize of the festival.
The EMTh TRC is organizing yearly seminars and Summer Schools for the pupils and the teachers of the primary and secondary education schools of the region.

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